Hello, my name is Bethany Couture, and I am a FUNtographer. Join me as I spend the weekend at the Endless Fires Festival at Sharkey’s Event Center in Liverpool. Where I get this once of a kind experience: photographing bands, meeting people from the music community, and witnessing people in their rawest form. With seventy-two bands to choose from, various vendors, tattoo artists, and a crowd of people to navigate. This was one wild ride filled with emotional speeches, tears, black eyes, fights, crowd surfing, stage diving, mosh pits and lots of blood.
Each day the festival started at 11:00 am and ran until 10:00 pm. Offering a total of seventy-two bands and four stages to choose from. The music was strategically grouping together in the run of the show and ranged from death metal, rap, punk, hard-core and metal-core. With such a loaded weekend, I personally made an effort to make my festival experience leisurely and aspired to savor the overall experience over rushing around to explore all of my options. I picked my favorite acts and from there made it a priority to soak up the culture and community. Making the FUNtographer experience my number priority.
On Saturday, August 15, I entered the grounds, did a festival walk through and headed to the main stage. The stages were placed close enough to make navigation quickly and all of the vendors were conveniently positioned along the path. This made the experience easier on the senses and took out the guessing of where you are to where you would like to be. As a girl with ADHD I find it very easy to get overwhelmed and lost at really big festivals but this felt like the perfect fit.
The first band I started my day with was death metal band Through The Eyes of The Dead at the main stage. Their set was methodic, intense, and was delivered with brutal force; featuring themes of torture, murder, horror and death. After the set I quickly checked out No Grave at the Punk Stage tent. While I was there I was greeted by a passionate concert goer who decided to push me repetitively while I had the camera to my face. I tell you, I turned around so fast, gave him my best resting bitch face with my fist clenchted close to my face and shouted, “I will fucking boot stump you”. Which seemed to do the trick because he ran very quickly and I didn’t have that issue again.
After that excitement I decided to camp out at the main stage and catch all of the headliners. X-Cops were definitely a stand out show. I loved their slapstick comedic way of making fun of corrupt police officers. They also made the best use of props, utilizing fake bags of cocaine to throw at the crowd and squirt blood at the audience.
Dead Guy’s set was a cool set to watch. I loved how they utilized the venue and played from inside the VIP boat. Then wrapped up the set by playing inside the audience and gave a fan an opportunity to play guitar with the band.
Punk rock band Comeback Kid followed Dead Guys and their set drove the crowd wild. Fans rushed to the extended stage to get close to singer Andrew Neufeld, stage dive, crowd surf, mosh and sing into the mic. The air became electric with hype but my favorite part was actually the quiet moment after the set when I got to meet Andrew Neufeld and was given the set list.
The electricity continued to collect with Bleeding Through. Their set was a wild rollercoaster ride of metal-core music and included a special appearance from frontman and vocalist Andrew Neufeld of Comeback Kid. Which started off as an explosion of pure tension, followed by a release, and ended with emotional gratitude and appreciation. The passion in the air was charged like a current ready to spark and once it had reached its arch, heartfelt emotions came upfront. Which is something you do not see often in the metal industry and it touched me. I greatly felt Brandan Schieppati’s speech and you could sense that it came from somewhere deep inside him.
Consequently, my personal favorite part of the set was when Brandan Schieppati walked across the extended stage, stopped in front of me, paused, stared deep into my eyes, smiled, grabbed me by the head and gently head butted me. That will be a moment I will not forget and was recognized by many around.
The last opener for the evening was hardcore punk band American Nightmare. Which was set up for success following such amazing acts. By this point fans were so wound up and energetically charged it moved one fan into tears because he finally got the opportunity to get up close and personal with his favorite band, sing with singer Weslay Eisold and embrace him.
To conclude Saturday was Gwar, my favorite artist of the weekend and I had such an incredible time in the pit. Not only did I get to photograph the show but I got to shoot from the extended stage and it gave me an amazing perspective. I was directly below them but lifted off of the ground so it was an up close and personal experience.
Throughout the set I got to be inches away from the band and as I moved around the band members would squirt me with their blood. Over, and over and over again. I was literally drenched in blood and even had blood stuck under my contact lens. But the evening would not be complete until I put my camera equipment down to crowd surfed.
Sunday, the lineup shifted and so did I. With Saturday being incredibly action packed I was relieved that Sunday had a different vibe. So I meandered more and was lucky enough to interview John JT Taylor and the gang from Blood Desecration. The interview kept getting bombarded by passerbys and was completely not serious but it was fun and perfect.
After that I quickly caught Lil Wyte, Blood Desecration, and Madball’s set. Madball definitely wound up the audience and set them loose. The crowd really started to get aggressive and feel the music but Project Pat’s fans were next level crazy. Not only did they mosh, stage dive and sign along but an actual fight broke out during their song Chickenhead. Luckily, security was vigilant and removed the instigator before someone got badly hurt.
One thing I have noticed about these types of shows is that individuals come just to hurt someone. I understand the desire to let loose and to be present in your body but I do not understand the desire to intentionally hurt someone. On this specific day, I whitenessed a gentleman purposefully aiming donkey kicks and sucker punches at stranger’s faces. Which I need my face! I mean my face is one of the things I got.
To end the night I quickly grabbed a gluten free pizza from Sharkey’s kitchen and caught Boundaries and headliner Three 6 Mafia. Boundaries set carried a feisty passion but unlike the previous bands they stayed predominantly on the main stage and did not include the crowd as much.
The last set of the weekend was headliner Three 6 Mafia and they pulled a massive crowd. The band clearly has a cult following because a lot of the individuals who came the second day arrived just to see them. I met fans that drove all the way from Pennsylvania which is wild because so many locals had no clue that this event was happening and here I am hanging out with people from all over.
Overall, the weekend was a wild ride. With four stages and seventy-two bands there just wasn’t enough time in the day to do it all but I talked to individuals who loved having all the different options to choose from. I kinda lean into the less is more vibe but I appreciate the ability to cherry pick what I want to do and I just love being around my friends from Sharkey’s. The whole venue is family owned and operated and the staff are the best people to be around. I sincerely have never had a bad experience and only felt welcomed and included. I couldn’t recommend the venue more.
So on a serious note please support your locally owned music venues. Stop spending money on Live Nation shows and go to a venue that actually needs your money. As an insider all of these music venues are financially struggling to compete and need people like you are me to buy tickets, eat some food, have a few drinks and buy some merch. Ok? Just do it before they are all gone and we are stuck at home crying that there is nothing to do. We hold all of the purchasing power, so go do it before they all shut their doors. Thank you!
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